President Aliyev: Azerbaijan is a leader for development pace of cotton-growing
President Ilham Aliyev visited Barda region on March 26 to chair a republican conference on development of cotton-growing, which is currently in the focus of attention as the state is making every effort to revive the cotton industry, providing huge support to entrepreneurs.
Agriculture cannot develop without serious state support not only in Azerbaijan, but also in all other countries, President Aliyev said addressing the event.
“We know that even the leading states, which have made great strides in the development of agriculture, allocate serious subsidies to agriculture; state support is provided, and in many cases, protectionist measures are taken. Each country tries to protect its market. Naturally, we also render very serious state support to the development of agriculture in Azerbaijan,” he said.
The head of state went on to say that in recent years, Azerbaijan has achieved very great success in the development of agriculture, in particular, in issues related to food security. “Our main task has been related to food security issues in recent years, because in Soviet times cotton, grapes, fruits, vegetables were grown in Azerbaijan, but the main food products were supplied from other republics. Therefore, we have, first of all, worked and invested in order to meet domestic needs with local products. I think we have made very significant progress in addressing food security issues,” he noted.
In the main areas that determine food security, today Azerbaijan either fully provides itself or is very close to this target, according to President Aliyev.
“Azerbaijan provides itself with meat by almost 100 percent. Production of milk stands at approximately 80-85 percent. Production of chicken meat will reach 100 percent and big export potential will be created in the next year or two. As for production of eggs, currently, we not only provide ourselves, but also export. In other words, these are priority areas,” he noted.
Touching upon industrial crops, the head of state said they were left unheeded, adding there were a number of reasons for this.
“One of the reasons was related to the belief that farmers themselves know what to plant and grow. This sphere was not given much state support. As for private companies that were engaged in cotton-growing, they did not exert the necessary effort, did not pay proper attention to cotton production, did not invest the proper amounts, and cotton-growing was gradually destroyed in Azerbaijan. It is enough to look at the statistical indexes: 2015 was the most aggrieving year in the history of cotton-growing. Cotton was planted only on 18,000 hectares and only 35,000 tons of cotton was harvested,” he noted.
The state has been seriously engaged in this issue since late 2015, according to the president.
“As I noted, meetings were held in 2016-2017. The State Program on the development of cotton-growing was adopted in 2017, and we began to systematically deal with these issues and today we can talk about excellent indicators. Cotton harvest increased from 35,000 to 207,000 tons within two years. In other words, we were able to increase the cotton-picking by six times, and this is not the limit. Today we will talk about the future work to boost the cotton-growing,” he said.
The head of state noted that Azerbaijan purchased almost 500 cotton harvesters through the state support. Speaking about tractors produced in Azerbaijan, as well as foreign machinery, trailers, the president said that recently, he got acquainted with a part of them in Barda.
“Big funds are allocated for these purposes. The supply of fertilizers improves. It can be noted that the Azerbaijani state undertook this field as well – fertilizers are provided with 70-percent benefits. Despite the success achieved in this field, we must work even more seriously. The quality of fertilizers should be even better, and much attention is also attached to this area,” President Aliyev added.
The head of state emphasized that major projects in the field of land reclamation have been implemented in recent years. Tens of thousands of hectares of land were covered by land reclamation measures, he said.
“Meanwhile, very big amounts of money were used for this sphere and other complex measures were taken in Barda and other districts. A centralized management system was created to upgrade cotton-growing. The presidential administration, local executive authorities, companies, farmers, workers have achieved good results. The figures reached within two years are the best indicators,” President Aliyev added.
He went on to say that today Azerbaijan is a leading country in the world in terms of development pace of cotton-growing.
“I do not believe that there is a second country in the world that could increase cotton harvest by more than six times within two years. We have achieved this through targeted measures,” the president noted.
The head of state spoke about the great benefits of cotton-growing for the country’s economy.
He noted that cotton-growing primarily means employment, it brings currency to the country, develops the non-oil sector, non-oil industry. It gives momentum to local production, creates jobs not only in the districts involved in cotton-growing, but also in other districts, the head of state added.
“I would like to once again say that if the state support was not provided to cotton-growing, we would not have achieved this: 35,000 tons would have been harvested in 2015, and perhaps 20,000 tons would have been harvested this year and maybe not. Thus, cotton-growing would have completely disappeared. We did not allow this. We have saved, restored, and will revive cotton-growing. We will hear information about the work done, and also we will talk about the forthcoming work at today’s conference. I should note that our main task will be the productivity increase in the following years, because the experience of past years shows that there is a lot of progress,” the head of state said.
“About 90,000 tons of cotton was harvested in 2016, and 207,000 tons in the previous year. Despite the fact that the crop was harvested in big volumes, the productivity per hectare is not at the proper level. It is at a very good level – more than 26 quintals – in Barda District. However, the productivity is very small in some districts,” he noted.
The reasons for this are analyzed and should be analyzed in order to prevent the shortcomings in the future, and to reach even higher productivity, President Aliyev added.
Addressing the conference, the head of state also touched upon the improvement of fertilizer supply in Azerbaijan.
“The quality of fertilizers should be even better, and much attention is also attached to this area. We will provide ourselves with fertilizers. The production of irrigation equipment has already been established in Azerbaijan. Thanks to the use of this equipment, we can increase the productivity,” the president said.
A plant on production of fertilizers will start operating in Sumgayit city in 2018, he said.
“A light industry park was established in Mingachevir. I spoke about it at previous conferences. All necessary instructions were given. Two new enterprises of the Light Industry Park started operating in Mingachevir in February 2018. More than 700 people work at these enterprises, and 20,000 tons of yarn will be produced. This is almost half of the yarn produced in the previous period. If cotton-growing did not develop rapidly in Azerbaijan, then there would be no need for these enterprises either, because these plants can work successfully only on the basis of local raw materials,” President Aliyev emphasized.
He further said that last year was a year of stabilization for Azerbaijan in the economic sphere and 2018 is a year of development.
“As during the last year, this year all relevant structures, central and local executive authorities, vendor companies, farmers and workpeople should act as one team. The problems existing during the season, that’s to say, the problems that will emerge, should be resolved immediately. And we should complete this year with maximum profit,” said the head of state.
“I mentioned the figures related to labor resources. Around 200,000 people were involved in these works. Local executive authorities should work and provide information with the purpose of identifying labor resources in regions and attracting them to these works. That’s to say, cotton-growing is a very favorable sphere to earn money every day. It is necessary to ensure serious analysis of our labor resources in regions, because, as a result of growing economic activity in Azerbaijan, tens of thousands of new jobs have been created, including in the private sector, as currently, the state renders great support to the private sector,” said President Aliyev.
The head of state pointed out that economic indicators of this year are encouraging.
“Over the two months, the nonoil industry has grown by more than 8 percent, while non-oil sector and agriculture have increased by 2.3 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. Plant growing has increased by over 40 percent. Therefore, economic activity paves way for creating jobs in the private sector,” the president said.
He added that at the same time, very active work is underway in cotton-growing and other spheres of agriculture.
Further, the head of state noted that demographic dynamics in Azerbaijan is very positive, the population is growing and will reach the level of ten million in the near future.
“This is our great privilege and we should use our labor resources effectively. It is necessary to pay serious attention to this sphere in this season. In one word, I am confident that positive and negative sides of the last year’s results will be seriously analyzed this year. We will achieve even better results this year. Productivity, cotton supply will grow, and cotton-growing will continue to develop rapidly,” he added.
Afterwards, the Azerbaijani president's decree to award people who contributed to development of agriculture in Azerbaijan was read out.
President Aliyev presented the first degree “Labor Order” to farmers Fatma Huseynova, Tofig Ismayilov, and Fazil Musayev.
Head of the Barda District Executive Power Vidadi Isayev, Deputy Director General of MKT Istehsalat Kommersiya LLC Rovshan Hasanov, Head of the Tartar District Executive Power Mustagim Mammadov, farmer Fazil Musayev from the Bilasuvar district, Head of the Agjabadi District Executive Power Shahin Mammadov, Acting Executive Director of Azerpambig LLC Zakir Azimov, farmer Nizami Mammadov from the Saatli district, and Chairman of the Azerbaijan Melioration and Water Management OJSC Ahmad Ahmadzade also addressed the conference.
In the course of his visit to Barda region, President Aliyev also took part in the opening of newly renovated Yeni Dashkand-Umudalilar highway, Barda Mausoleum and Torpaggala Complex and viewed farmer Musa Guliyev’s 20-hectare cotton plantation in Jayirli village.